text: Oesper was born in Cincinnati and attended public schools before enrolling at the University of Cincinnati in 1904. There he earned a bachelors degree in 1908, a masters degree in 1909, and a PhD in 1914 with Lauder William Jones as his thesis advisor. These degrees were all in the field of chemistry or analytical chemistry.
  On 29 June 1910 he married Helen Gertrude Wilson (1885–1972). The couple had one child, Peter Oesper, who also became a chemistry professor.